Menu

Smoking Barrel’s Graffiti Criticism Corner, Florence Edition

In this semi-weekly series, I, Smoking Barrel/Genna Rivieccio (don’t make me choose an identity) will give you insight into some of the very coked out political-minded graffiti that tends to appear specifically in the Florence area. I will try to lend some sort of behind-the-scenes thought process to graffiti “artists” who genuinely believed what they were tagging was genius and/or made any sort of sense. At the end of each critique, three of the following grades will be given: Why are you torturing my eyes?, Marginal or I Want to Get What You’re Saying, But I Just Can’t.

When it comes to graffiti of this nature, Banksy pretty much has it on lockdown. Anyone else’s attempt at it just feels naturally contrived in the worst possible sort of imitative way. While Europe in general seems to have a higher concern regarding the privacy invasion of CCTV, it is really America that should be worried. And yet, we’re obsessed with putting ourselves on blast via various “social media outlets” (a phrase I’m convinced will eventually be as antiquated as World Wide Web).

Still, considering Italy has about two channels, RAI and Mediaset (owned by international parody Silvio Berlusconi), it’s no wonder the country is concerned with “stopping control”–not just on a camera level. The concentration of power, however, is not going to be moved by this derivative graffito that’s already been played in the U.K.

Graffiti Grade: Marginal

Location: Not sure, Florence isn’t that big, is it? Surely you could track this graffito down.